Brockton killer convicted at 17 granted parole

Friday

Jun 6, 2014 at 12:01 AMJun 6, 2014 at 11:42 AM

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz blasts the decision to parole a man convicted at age 17 in a 1994 double-murder in Brockton. Frederick Christian, 37, has served 20 years in state prison for his role in the slayings.

Cruz said he was “shocked and disappointed” Thursday upon learning that convicted killer Frederick Christian of Brockton had been granted parole.

Christian, 37, has been incarcerated since 1994 when he was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder for his role in a robbery that left two men dead and another injured.

“I am still reviewing their findings, but even a cursory review demonstrates that the Parole Board’s findings fly in the face of the evidence at trial and the findings of the jury that convicted Christian of first-degree murder,” Cruz said in a statement.

Christian’s case had received increased attention in recent weeks after he and another man became the first juvenile offenders to seek parole in the wake of a 2013 case where the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled life sentences without parole were a cruel and unusual punishment for juveniles.

The ruling came after a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down such mandatory life sentencing laws.

On May 29, Christian and another convicted killer, Joseph Donovan, were the first of the 63 prisoners affected by the ruling to come before the Parole Board.

During the May 1994 robbery, Christian and friend Russell Horton, 18, ambushed Kepler Desir and Manuel Araujo while the men sat in a rented Pontiac Grand Prix parked at Brockton’s Parmenter Playground.

During his testimony before the Parole Board, Christian said that he and Horton had intended to rob some local drug dealer that evening, but when that plan fell through, Horton suggested they rob Desir, who also dealt drugs.

During the probation hearing, both Cruz and Carlos Araujo, the surviving victim, appeared before the Probation Board and urged them not to set Christian free.

“We provided the trial transcripts to the parole board and crime scene photos,” Cruz said in a statement. “Those are the best evidence in this case and they do not support the Parole Board’s findings or its decision to set this double murderer free.”

The Parole Board unanimously voted to grant Christian parole, given his age at the time of his conviction, relatively clean record while incarcerated and lack of a violent history outside the murder conviction.

Before being released, Christian must complete an eight-week Motivational Enhancement program and serve one year without incident in a minimum-security facility. At the end of that period, he will be released to Tennessee, where will have to meet a number of requirements, including no alcohol or drug use, three months in a residential treatment facility and no contact with the surviving victim and his family.